1. Field
The following description relates generally to wireless communications, and more particularly to multiplexing schemes that can support flexible multiplexing of localized and distributed allocations.
2. Background
Wireless communication systems have become a prevalent means by which a majority of people worldwide have come to communicate. Wireless communication devices have become smaller and more powerful in order to meet consumer needs, improve portability and convenience. The increase in processing power in mobile devices such as cellular telephones has lead to an increase in demands on wireless network transmission systems.
A typical wireless communication network (e.g., employing frequency, time, and code division techniques) includes one or more base stations that provide a coverage area and one or more mobile (e.g., wireless) terminals that can transmit and receive data within the coverage area. A typical base station can concurrently transmit multiple data streams for broadcast, multicast, and/or unicast services, wherein a data stream is a stream of data that can be of independent reception interest to a mobile terminal. A mobile terminal within the coverage area of that base station can be interested in receiving one, more than one or all the data streams carried by the composite stream. Likewise, a mobile terminal can transmit data to the base station or another mobile terminal.
For downlink transmission, either localized (e.g. block-wise) transmission or distributed (e.g. scattered) transmission can be employed. Localized transmission is beneficial because it allows for frequency selective scheduling. Distributed transmission, on the other hand, makes use of frequency diversity and is useful for high-speed users. A need exists for optimizing the type of transmission that is employed while also allowing for a reduction in the number of bits that are transmitted during the downlink transmission.